Letters to the Editor
“Queer”
is OK
Thank you so much for your hard work on behalf of OITM. I love the redesign,
and as a fellow reporter, I appreciate your thoughtful and professional
coverage of the news. It’s a vital service to our community.
It’s clear from the bylines
that you’re currently the paper’s only news reporter. I know
you’d like to have more people covering news for you. There are
certainly more stories to tell. I’ve contributed articles on occasion,
and will again, but my partner and I recently had a baby, and I’m
swamped with work.
That’s partly thanks to OITM
- when I decided to pursue a career as a writer in 1998, I got my first
assignment from this newspaper. I wrote several stories for OITM, and
they helped me to land my first paying gig writing for the Vermont Times.
The clips that I accumulated at OITM and at Vermont Times are what convinced
the editors of Seven Days to give me a shot at writing for them in 2001.
They hired me as a full-time staff writer in 2005.
My experience is proof that writing
for OITM can provide aspiring writers with clips they can use to advance
their careers. And volunteering your time and your words is a great way
to give back to the community.
On another note, I read your disparaging
comments regarding the use of the word “queer” to describe
our diverse community. I understand your reluctance to embrace the word,
but I disagree with your statement that we need a label “more positive
than queer.”
For the majority of LGBTQQIA people
under 35 - maybe 40? - the world queer has mostly positive associations.
We’ve reclaimed it. We’re using it. And we wish you would
join us. People of all persuasions all over the country are using the
word in a very visible, positive way. To buck that trend, in my opinion,
is to put yourself on the wrong side of history.
The debate over whether or not to
use “queer” is similar, in my mind, to the debate over gay
marriage.
A sizable number of people in this country
find gay marriage repellent. Most of them are over 40. If you look at
survey data, it’s clear that rising generations do not possess the
same deep-seated discomfort with gay marriage, regardless of their sexual
orientation.
The folks in the marriage movement
argue that it’s just a matter of time before the demographics shift,
and people in this country embrace state-sanctioned same-sex couplehood.
Maybe the same thing is true of the word “queer.” I hope it
happens sooner.
Cathy Resmer
Winooski
“Gay” is OK
In response to the question you posed at the end of your editorial entitled
“Alphabet Soup,” I would agree “LGBTQQIA” is way
over the edge. Instead, I would suggest that we simply stick to the word
“gay” which would stand for anyone who is not heterosexual.
Years ago, one of my students came running
up to me all excited and wanted to know for sure, wasn’t it true
that the word “gay” meant happy? I assured her that yes, indeed,
it did in fact mean happy! We even looked it up in the dictionary and
sure enough, Merriam Webster agrees. Since that day I have always cherished
the word “gay.”
Many thanks for all that you do to keep
Out In The Mountains up and running. Your fans greatly appreciate it.
Best wishes for your continued success.
Bunny Lavoie
Windsor
Dean: Take Responsibility for DNC’s Gay Outreach Program
After making the overworked Donald Hitchcock a sacrificial lamb, now the
Democratic National Committee (DNC) is attempting to silence the party’s
gay activists. Choosing to let Donald go was a mistake. Now we have a
new director, Brian Bond, without a strategic plan and without the funding,
institutional support or time to handle both fundraising and outreach
to the LGBT community.
The DNC’s LGBT and field staff now
must divide their time between handling an immense task and calming the
critics of the program.
Taking the LGBT vote for granted is a luxury
the DNC cannot afford with crucial 2006 midterm elections approaching.
It is likely that the LGBT vote will
play a very important role in deciding who is elected and who falls just
short this season. Without a strong and active LGBT field program from
2006 to 2008, the Democratic Party risks losing the substantial gains
it made in organizing the LGBT community during the 2004 campaign.
The LGBT community is one of the most engaged
demographics. It is looking for a party that will fight for its issues.
But under the leadership of Howard Dean, the Democratic Party continues
to signal to LGBT votes that they will take our money but do not take
up our issues for fear of appearing too liberal.
Stripping the field program and replacing
it with a plan focused entirely on fundraising is not only disheartening,
but is destroying the credibly of the DNC, Howard Dean and other high-ranking
LGBT officers such as Andy Tobias. As the highest ranking officer at the
DNC, Mr. Tobias should be the most vocal critic of the DNC’s dismantling
of the LGBT outreach programs - not its most silent.
The addition of Brian Bond provides a good
opportunity for change. But the DNC should not use his skills for the
purpose of fundraising as they did with Donald Hitchcock. Without a full-time
field outreach staffer and a separate full-time LGBT fundraiser, the DNC
will continue to sacrifice field organizing for dollars.
I strongly urge you to consider what the
DNC is doing before writing a fundraising check. It is time to accept
that the LGBT community must be more than the silent piggy bank of the
Democratic Party and from this day forward commit to realizing a formal
place in Party organizing and outreach before it is too late.
Andy Szekeres
LGBT and Democratic Activist
Former LGBT Field Director - Wisconsin Democratic Party
Former Out for Dean Chapter Leader
Mary Cheney vs. the Ugly Gay Left
The Gay Left is increasingly becoming a mirror image of all the hatred
and intolerance they condemn. Specifically, they exclude over one million
gay voters who, according to the New York Times, are Republican and represent
one out of four gay voters in exit polls.
This problem was on display with the vile
attacks and despicable bar-raising by many gay editors and activists toward
Mary Cheney, the partnered lesbian daughter of Vice President Richard
Cheney.
Mary Cheney’s recent public statements
opposing the federal constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage
has been almost consistently greeted with “too little, too late”
responses from those who write editorial opinion for the gay world. The
fact that her father, a conservative Republican, is also opposed to amending
the Constitution to ban gay marriage is not even underscored or celebrated
by the far left gay press.
This is exactly why the gay left has
reached the point of diminishing returns in the gay community. They cannot
accept incremental progress on gay issues by Republicans, albeit they
certainly allow the Democratic National Committee to veer right on gay
marriage and outreach. Republicans can never do enough; their efforts
to placate - even defend and include gays - are always painfully or horribly
inadequate, according to the Gay Left Noise Machine of weeklies, blogs
and websites.
As Kevin Naff, managing editor of the Washington
Gay Blade asserts, many gays are wrongfully blaming Mary Cheney for not
coming out soon enough and completely enough for gay causes. This is the
phony legacy of so many liberal and so-called “progressive”
gay writers.
You eventually learn that when most gay
people say they are completely out, they really mean that they are “selectively
out,” depending upon the situation, e.g. people consider themselves
“completely out” when they march in a gay parade with dark
sunglasses on and a baseball hat pulled tightly over their head. Some
say they are completely out at work, creating a false impression of self-confidence
and superiority, because they don’t tell you of the closeted aspects
of their lives.
This “selectively out” business
applies to many, many left-wing writers and activists in the GLBT community
who still hold the keys of their own closet. While they demand that everybody
be “out” 24/7, many of these sanctimonious gay leftists forget
that they hide their true identity from even Democratic family members
and friends.
Mary Cheney’s public outing
was never so limited. She couldn’t hide from her parents, friends,
the GOP or the Democratic Party - and certainly not the ugly elements
of the gay press who like to call themselves humanitarians and egalitarians.
Mary Cheney couldn’t conveniently select which avenues of her life
she wanted to be “out” the way most gay people do and certainly
many of her stuffy pretentious critics.
As Kevin Naff writes, “We should all
look in the mirror before condemning Mary Cheney.” And that introspection,
first and foremostly, goes for the columnists and editors of the hateful,
ridiculing, ugly Gay Left.
Matthew Veritas Tsien
Vice President, Membership
Log Cabin Republicans
South Florida
Scudder Parker Supports Rights
Jim Douglas isn’t the Governor that Vermont needs. His actions are
consistently inconsistent with his words. An immediate an extreme example
is Jim Douglas’ statement of commitment to Vermont’s history
of protecting minorities, ending discrimination and creating a safe community
at the “Creating a Welcoming Community” diversity conference
at St. Michael’s College. He made that statement just a few short
weeks after his veto of the Gender Identity and Expression Bill (H.865).
This makes him the first Governor in recent history to veto a piece of
civil rights legislation.
Vermont needs a leader, not a lifelong politician
who doesn’t stand up against the ugly influences of partisan politics
that threaten the Vermont way of life. We need a leader who does not appoint
right wing conservatives to Vermont’s Human Rights Commission who
then vote against important civil rights legislation. Jim Douglas puts
special interests ahead of what is best for all Vermonters.
My name is Scudder Parker and I am
the Democratic candidate for Governor of Vermont. My campaign is a campaign
to unite and empower people all across our state, regardless of party
affiliation, to join together in a common purpose. I will protect what
is special about our state and restore Vermont as a leader on basic human
rights issues. I will unify Vermont and end the divisiveness that concerns
so many of us.
I will work tirelessly to protect
your civil rights. Jim Douglas needed me to remind him that he needed
to protect Vermonters from the NSA wiretapping. Jim Douglas also needs
to be reminded that all Vermonters deserve to be protected from discrimination
for expressing their gender identity.
My campaign is powered by people - Vermonters
fueled with optimism, passion, conviction and the dedication to make ideas
become reality. I invite you to join us.
Scudder Parker
Middlesex
Witt's End by Leah Wittenberg
